Marijuana’s prohibition origins are that of a racial law backed up by bad science and twisted by political interests to protect profits then as now.

This is about a paramilitary agency shutting down the free flow of scientific information and research on “marijuana,” but allowing corporations to profit using the same plant relabeled as “cannabinoids.”

This is not about restricting information for national security reasons … this is a case about forbidding medical research that could help people who have cancer and other serious diseases. We’re talking prevention, possibly curing diseases, and vastly improving the lives of people who suffer.

Or are corporate profits being protected over the welfare of people? Corporations do not get sick, suffer from diseases, feel pain or suffer. Corporations are not people.

Think of it as forbidding the medical freedom to conduct research and publish data which may be contrary to “official DEA marijuana science.” This is the antithesis to the principle of the free flow of knowledge, which is at the heart of how medical science works.

The DEA is the sole agency that sets drug scheduling status, yet their mission statement only allows for the study of negative effects of marijuana. This conflict of interest drives the internal closed loop of circular thinking that has been frozen in time for the last 76 years and is about to fall like the Berlin wall!

Many small people in many small places are doing small things can alter the face of the world! This highlights official DEA science that has gone off the rails.

Schedule I shuts down all outside research by independent medical researchers not on the DEA payroll and not under DEA control. We are about to find out what the DEA has been hiding from the U.S. population and the extent of their scientific research malpractice. See: “The Anti-Science Streak in Federal Marijuana Policy,” The Atlantic.

Claims that marijuana is dangerous and not an effective medicine for a multitude of conditions is false information that is 76 years outdated and has unequivocally been disproven many times over.

Last year, a pro-marijuana tipping point was reached when, for the first time, a majority of Americans polled by Gallup believed marijuana should be legalized for medical use.

“70 percent favored making it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana in order to reduce pain and suffering. Americans have consistently been more likely to favor the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes than to favor its legalization generally.”

But now, a medical/scientific tipping point has also been reached. When the data from the last 10 years is reviewed in meta-analysis fashion, it will reveal an overwhelming amount of positive cannabinoid evidence.

“The two largest organizations that represent physicians, the American Medical Association and American College of Physicians, want the federal government to reconsider the classification of cannabis as Schedule 1 under the Controlled Substances Act.”

“The writing is on the wall. The two largest physicians’ groups in the country are saying that the Schedule 1 of marijuana is suspect and urgently needs reconsideration.” ~ Sunil Kumar Aggarwal, MD, PhD

“The American Nurses Association (ANA) recognizes that patients should have safe access to therapeutic marijuana/cannabis. Cannabis or marijuana has been used medicinally for centuries. It has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of symptoms and conditions.”
“Position Statement: Providing Patients Safe Access to Therapeutic Marijuana/Cannabis,” American Nurses Association (ANA) website, March 19, 2004

Suppressing scientific medical information and not allowing independent research is a violation of freedom of speech.

Schedule I takes away the freedom of academic speech, freedom of self-expression, freedom of the medical press to publish, all free from government interference in the scientific process.

Again, should a paramilitary organization really be in charge of decisions I make with my doctor in private?

Suppression of scientific information that could relieve the pain and suffering of countless cancer patients, and which may prevent deaths from cancer, should be a crime requiring jail time. Should Harry Anslinger be posthumously tried for crimes against humanity for his leading role in marijuana prohibition?

The scientific case for the entire prohibition of medical marijuana rests on the truth or falsification of the following three medical claims made by the DEA, which are the heart of their case, their rationale for prohibition, and the reason why one in six U.S. prisoners are presently in jail over marijuana.

FALSE. Here is an 840-page compilation of published medical studies that show the proactive use of cannabis in various forms. Granny Storm Crow’s MMJ Reference List, July 2012; please click on this link [PDF].

Historically, these three claims can all be directly connected to way back to 1937, when marijuana was made illegal after two days of committee hearings with no supporting science, and over the objections of AMA by Congress.

If present-day scientific evidence could prove one or all of these statements as inaccurate, would Schedule I and prohibition be overturned? What method governs this process to get at the real scientific truth that strips the bias out of scientific research so the science can speak for itself?

In all the headlines and rush of positive cannabis medical news stories vs. government misinformation, sometimes we lose sight of the basic principles of the true meaning of what the scientific method and falsification stand for. These are not obscure footnotes debated by researchers; they are at the heart of what separates real science from junk science.

Real scientific medical research is governed by a set of rules that cannot be violated and still call itself valid science. The first principle of valid scientific research: it is free from cognitive bias.

Even that word, marijuana, is biased, and the starting point for much research. It is an invented guttural term for cannabis; it was used like the “N” word, a demonized word that was used to bully non-whites and control two cultures, Mexicans and Blacks. And yet that word is still being used in research in the year 2012!

Preventing independent research by keeping cannabis Schedule I is the worst type of intimidation, because it targets the sick and ill, who are the least able to fight back and, in some cases, dying.

The scientific method is the best rational method invented for judging and separating competing claims for accuracy and truth. Why is this important?

Because we as humans all have our own personal biases, fears, prejudices, hidden agendas, financial motives, delusional and sacred ideas that control our conscious and unconscious beliefs, which prejudices our viewing of information and creeps into our conclusions. The scientific method and falsification corrects for this.

This is what drives new research and progress. Unfortunately, the above three claims have not been updated in 76 years!

Let’s see if the good people at GW Pharmaceuticals can help us falsify Schedule I.

The first line in the Sativex pipeline chart below clearly states that Sativex has been approved for multiple sclerosis spasticity (in the U.S.? Last year? What happened? Did somebody forget to put an American flag on its status?).

In addition, the results of Sativex testing for cancer pain is about to be submitted to the United States FDA in short order. Please look at the other medical conditions that the FDA will soon also allow Sativex to treat. But marijuana, not so much.

The currently approved multiple sclerosis indication for Sativex represents only the start of Sativex commercial life.

Oh! But wait a minute — I must be all wrong about this! The DEA says marijuana never was medicine and never will be medicine.

“Soon after taking office, I directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to ensure that our policies reflect what science tells us without distortion or manipulation. We appointed scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology. I also have insisted that we be open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions.”

“Only by ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda, making scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology, and including the public in our decision making process will we harness the power of science to achieve our goals.”~ President Barack Obama

Former NYPD cop, former high school health teacher, the unstoppable Ron Marczyk, R.N., Toke Signals columnist

Editor’s note: Ron Marczyk is a retired high school health eduation teacher who taught Wellness and Disease Prevention, Drug and Sex Ed, and AIDS education to teens aged 13-17.

He also taught a high school International Baccalaureate psychology course. He taught in a New York City public school as a Drug Prevention Specialist.

He is a Registered Nurse with six years of ER/Critical Care experience in NYC hospitals, earned an M.S. in cardiac rehabilitation and exercise physiology, and worked as a New York City police officer for two years.

Currently he is focused on how evolutionary psychology explains human behavior.

To see all of Ron Marczyk’s “Worth Repeating” articles for Toke Signals, click here.

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